On Friday 20 September Photographer Les Forrester gave a talk to the Ilkley Camera Club. Les has the distinction of being an Associate of The Roryal PHotographic Society and is a winner of the 2022 British Photography Award.
Les entitled his talk, ‘My Vision My Photography’ which was mainly about his architectural photography which has a distinctive look and feel. , “whenever I can I like to give the images a light style”, he said, describing his light and airy, high-key images.
Les likes to produce images that make the viewer think and takes most of his pictures abroad. Talking about an image of Stuttgart Library he said, “having some people in the photo helps give a sense of scale, we all know what size a person is”. “The Architecture of Copenhagen is amongst the best I’ve seen anywhere in the world”, he said.
Les spends a lot of time processing his images. He said he likes to spend time looking and thinking about what he’s doing before he starts, with a cup of coffee. “When I’m processing an image I might take a break and come back to it later with fresh eyes”.
Adding light to a scene and using contrasting colours was amongst the technical advice Les gave to members.
Many of his images are minimalistic in style and use long exposures to soften the scene.
Les was thanked by Alison Tetley for his inspirational talk and impressive images.
You can see some of Les’s work on his website www.lesforrester.com
Ilkley Camera Club is currently meeting on Friday evenings at 7.30pm. Some meetings are held at St Peter’s Church Hall in Addingham and others on Zoom. For more information visit the Club website at ilkleycameraclub.co.uk or their Facebook page, facebook.com/ilkleycameraclub. Visitors and new members are welcome.